With extreme precision, know-how and old school equipment, the NYC electro group Vinyl Life releases their debut album on Tape Theory.

The aesthetics are something completely new, with a very freestyle oriented sound. Leaving a very esoteric movement within EDM in general, they manage to make something that sounds as something “anyone could listen to”. A playful and experimental attitude towards house, hiphop, electro, funk and freestyle; a mix of styles that might come even closer together with this album.

The first track starts out quite calm, keeping the funk intact, the other influences are more in the background here, heading towards a more purist hiphop-electrofunk mixup. The track doesn’t really mirror to the other tracks as well as the rest of the tracks do to eachother, but the sense of the wide range of influence shines through the excellent groove and vocal parts. A very playful track that shows the outset of one aspect of the album (electro).

Continuing towards Royal House, Strictly Rhythm and the linked styles, a junglist framework with resemblances to late 80’s Chicago house, ‘Hi Tops’ feels like a even more playful take on a little bit of everything in electronic music. A even more limp beat goes through the progression of ‘Bass Go Boom’, one of the more calmer tracks of the album – steady beats and a more refined synthesizer use feels more modern than the previous track. Excellent!

One of the best tracks on the album are placed perfectly as A4. ‘Electric Symphony’ displays a even calmer sound, building slowly into a atmosphere of electronics and futuristic funk, Vinyl Life makes a track that feels so confident and self-evident it’s almost funny. As for the hip-hop side of things, ‘Innovation’ is the track closest to the genre on the album. A bit of R&B as well as house is combined through their excellent synthwork and cocky raps.

The rap gets more central on ‘Like This’, which takes things down a bit, keeping a slower tempo and putting a more refined style on hiphop and electrofunk in general. ‘Elevator Up’, a track that feels a little bit as a filler on the album could have been left out, but does what it’s supposed to do, sum up all sides of Vinyl Life.

Ironically, the best track of the album is placed on the B3, a cool and highly electrofunk influenced track that shines through the entire album. The sound of the album gets even more clear with the last two tracks, featuring almost all elements from the previous ones.

All in all, this album might not be for everybody. One thing that’s hard to avoid though, is the fresh sound of it that has so many links towards techno, house, electro, hiphop, jungle and plain funk, it’s a bad idea to skip out on it.